5 Best Wednesday Columns

Farhad Manjoo on Texting in Self-Driving Cars Following Google's announcement that they are developing self-driving, robotic cars, the Slate columnist examines the possibilities
for such technology. Google's cars are still much in the
experimental stage (they can't recognize, for instance, traffic cop's
hand signals), but they could eventually be a boon to overworked
American commuters, he writes. In particular, if most of driving's hassles
were handled by a computer, texting while driving and
other tasks could become less dangerous. Manjoo concludes: "Perhaps
this explains Google's motivation for looking into robotic cars: If
you're not driving, you'll have much more time to surf the Web."

Jon
Cowan and Evan Wolfson on the GOP's Softening Stance on Gay Marriage
In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, the Third Way think-tank
president and executive director of Freedom to Marry contend
that a "quiet revolution" is occurring in the Republican party regarding gay marriage. They note that the "Pledge to America" makes
scant reference to "traditional marriage" and that the usual "anti-gay
election-year demagoguery" isn't on display this year.
Furthermore, "no state is facing an anti-gay initiative on the ballot,
and marriage has not been a focus of the national conservative agenda."
What's the reason for this shift? "Perhaps a sense that a
libertarian-leaning belief in fully extending the freedom to marry to
all Americans does not, in fact, clash with a conservative commitment to
holding together the social fabric," they write. Or, they continue, it could just be that "GOP leaders" are finally taking note of the polls, which show "a majority of Americans nationwide now support marriage for gay and lesbian couples."

Douglas Starr on
the Myth of CSI Rather than being a model of "ultra-modern
efficiency," the quality of real-life crime scene forensics labs are "wildly
inconsistent," argues
the Boston University professor in a Boston Globe opinion column. To
bolster his case, he list four examples of recent cases that were marred by
poorly trained employees, antiquated equipment, and corrupt
investigators who "purposely alter" test results. To address these
glaring inadequacies, Starr suggests "re-inventing the nation's forensic
labs--not as arms of the police force but as independent scientific
entities, with ties to universities and the research community." This
way, "traditional forensic methods, such as fingerprinting and hair
analysis, would need to be reevaluated for scientific accuracy, and
technicians would need to meet national educational standards."

Adam Thomson on Mexico's Looming Tortilla Shortage The recent surge in grain prices prompts the Financial Times scribe to recollect
the so-called "tortilla riots" that followed a similar price increase
in 2006. In Mexico, people took to the streets when the price for a kilo
of corn tortillas--"a pillar of the Mexican diet"--rose from 8 pesos to
10 pesos. Explains Thomson: "The Mexican tortilla crisis came after a
rise in the cost of corn ... Although Mexico was more or less
self-sufficient in white maize, used for tortillas, it also imported a
large amount of yellow corn for animal feed." In subsequent years the
Mexican government has imposed measures designed to keep the price of
tortillas down, something that might not matter if the cost of grain
continues to soar. Still, Thomson concludes, Mexico is better equipped
to face a tortilla shortage today than they were four years ago. Import
quotas are in place to deter large-scale corn buyers from holding back
stocks, as they were an "inflationary factor" in the last tortilla
crunch. The country is also allowing more corn imports from the United
States and other countries to keep the market flush.

Ann Friedman
on the Experience Gap Voters--especially young voters--are crying out
for a political experience they can get excited about. The American
Prospect columnist notes
Barack Obama provided this "thrilling collective experience" at his
campaign rallies in 2008. With the president's luster severely
diminished, voters are looking elsewhere to tap into this collective
experience (which the Tea Party offers in abundance). Hence the excitement over Jon Stewart's forthcoming National
Mall rally. Democratic leaders, Friedman believes, should study the
event closely. They'll see that the "fundamental error that Democratic
strategists make ... is that they think this kind of engagement is
exclusive--that the young people who attend the Jon Stewart rally
won't remember to vote or encourage their friends to do the same." This
is not the case. "What the Obama campaign figured out," notes Friedman,
"is that engagement is cumulative--every little thing that draws
people in makes it possible for them to get involved further."
Democrats, she concludes, should not be distancing themselves from
anyone who gets young voters behind the progressive cause.